Xanthum Gum

[jkmunchkin]

I found a cookie recipe that I want to convert into a gluten free version (basically just gonna substitute the flour for Annalise Robert's flour mix). My question is does anyone know if I need to add xanthum gum? I tried making the Tollhouse Cookies from the recipe off the back of the bag once and although they tasted great they were completey deflated and flat. This was before I had discovered xanthum gum and I'm thinking that is what I needed to add. Any insight?

[DingoGirl]

I haven't tried any gluten-free baking at all yet, but, from my research, it seems that the xanthan gum is pretty crucial for getting any kind of chewy texture.....I think ChelsE posted something about this somewhere, she will know - she had a better description for it than I do, as I recall. I think it's really expensive, too, but kinda necessary, unfortunately.....keeps things together and makes them fluffier.

[Ruth52]

When I added xanthum gum to my gluten free bread mix it made the bread much less crumbly - quite edible in fact. So now I add xanthum gum to most of my baking and it has improved it out of sight. Though I did overdo it once with some cookies and they were so sticky I had trouble getting them off the spoon and onto the baking tray.

Ruth.

[queenofhearts]

I found a cookie recipe that I want to convert into a gluten free version (basically just gonna substitute the flour for Annalise Robert's flour mix). My question is does anyone know if I need to add xanthum gum? I tried making the Tollhouse Cookies from the recipe off the back of the bag once and although they tasted great they were completey deflated and flat. This was before I had discovered xanthum gum and I'm thinking that is what I needed to add. Any insight?

You'll find the xanthan gum is well worth the investment! In bread it is almost indispensible, but it helps almost everything. You don't need much, expecially in low-rising things like cookies, to make a big difference. (About 1/4-1/2 tsp. for an average batch.) I bake like a maniac & in 5 weeks I've barely dented my first package.

Leah

[jkmunchkin]

Oh I already have the xanthum gum. I've used it in all the Annalise Roberts recipes.

Thanks Leah (and everyone), yeah I figured like 1/4 tsp. would do.

Hopefully I'll try and make them tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.

[penguin]

There's a great chocolate chip cookie recipe in Annalise Robert's book. It calls for 1 tsp of xanthan gum for 2 cups of the baking mix. Of course, you're not making those cookies, I imagine. I would use at least 1/2 tsp. for each cup of flour.

The xanthan gum adds back some of the elasticity that gluten-free flours lack. Wheat gluten is what makes bread stretchy and elastic. I've also heard of putting some gelatin in dough. Wheat gluten is like a sticky rubber band, rice gluten, for example, is just sticky. Xanthan gum tries to make it more like a rubber band.

[2Boys4Me]

Try chilling the cookie dough for about half an hour before you bake them. The first time I made cookies they spread out and all melted into one giant crispy cookie. We ate them anyway, but the next time I chilled the dough first and then they came out like real cookies.

[eKatherine]

A lot of chocolate chip recipes - like the ones on chocolate chip packages - are designed to cook up deflated and flat. Adding xanthan gum to a recipe like that won't change that.

You will need to reduce the sugar and fat in the recipe (probably by 1/8) and use shortening or spectrum instead of butter. Chilling the dough will help the spread, too.

[jkmunchkin]

You will need to reduce the sugar and fat in the recipe (probably by 1/8) and use shortening or spectrum instead of butter. Chilling the dough will help the spread, too.

Really?! What does using shortening instead of butter do? Does that make it fluffier?

The recipe actually calls for you to chill the dough overnight so I was planning on doing that.

I hope this recipe goes well. I'm also testing whether I'm one of the people that can tolerate un-contaminated oats with this one. The recipe I found is the recipe for the cookies they have at Doubletree - those were my favorite cookies!

[eKatherine]

Shortening has a higher melting point than butter, so it will have less of a chance to spread before the surface of the cookie is set. If you were to try two batches side by side it would be easy for you to see the difference.

Back in my gluten days, I would add rolled oats to a cookie recipe that was a spreader to make it into a thick and chewy cookie that wasn't stomach-hurting sweet.